Ramat Gan is an eclectic town famous for many things totally unrelated to each other, including diamonds, football, malls, chocolates, Iraqi restaurants, a religious university, and an open-space African safari with lions. Small green public gardens are plentiful and all streets are tree-lined. Ramat Gan was founded in as a moshav a communal farming community. Over time the population grew as Tel Aviv sprawled, and today the population exceeds , Northwest Ramat Gan features a cluster of sparkling skyscrapers, which, at night, impresses you with a magnificent Manhattan-style skyline.
There, you will find the tallest building in Israel 75 floors , right next to the two skyscrapers comprising of the diamond stock exchange. This area, called the Boursa, turns at night into a sleazy collection of brothels and illegal casinos.
The rest of the city, just like its name, is residential with green gardens here and there. Some embassies including the EU delegation are located here, instead of Tel Aviv. A lot of political wheeling and dealing goes on at the Ramat Gan Sheraton City Towers, which is a preferred hang out for Likud Party primaries conferences.
In the northeast, you will find the first successful shopping mall in Israel Kanyon Ayalon surrounded by huge outlet stores. Next to it are a shooting range "mitvach" , the biggest soccer stadium in the country, and the Ramat Gan National Park.
On the southeast side of town is Bar Ilan University, which combines university studies with an orientation towards the religious Jewish community. Ramat Gan is also associated with chocolates, as those passing by the "Elite" factory on Jabotinski Road would catch sweet whiffs of chocolate in the blending. Last but not least, Ramat Gan is known as Baghdad Town. Most Jewish immigrants from Iraq settled here in the s and made Ramat Gan their home.
